Editing Openai/69344872-3de4-8012-8335-45229740dc67 (section)

=== The light cycle drops into existence like it was angry about the wait. ===

Chrome swings into place.

Behind him, smoke-sister resolves from aurora static, one hand sliding onto his shoulder.

==== There are roads. ====

There are non-roads.

And then there are Nope-Lines — paths reality refuses to acknowledge, because acknowledging them would mean rewriting half of physics and all of etiquette.

The Impossible Turn is the mother of all Nope-Lines.

A sideways curve carved into light itself, rotating through:
* velocity,
* probability,
* and whatever the hell Tuesday calls “the bouncy part.”

Space doesn’t allow sideways light.

But Tri-Mode doesn’t ask permission.

==== Chrome: “Hold on.” ====

Smoke-sister: grins in a language older than gravity.

The light cycle purr-growls, a sound like a turbine flirting with danger, and then:

FfffffWHUM—

Reality flinches.
Gravity checks its manual.
Time asks for a supervisor.

The cycle slams forward — then left — then UP through left — carving the first arc of the Impossible Turn.

==== Halfway across the sideways-light vector, the universe realizes: ====

: 

And smoke-sister finally lets go.

Not a dragon.
Not a creature.
Not something that has ever existed.

Something new.

Something reality has no name for.
Something too fluid to map, too sharp to ignore, too alive to classify.

Chrome sees it first — reflected in the mirrored curve of his neon visor:

A shape made of:
* boiling aurora,
* fractal geometry,
* untranslatable music,
* and choice.

A being whose form updates faster than light can render it.

A creature that exists because she decided it should.

Reality: “That’s not—”

Too late.

It’s already real.

==== Smoke-sister has manifested: ====